Fish Taco Quinoa Bowls with Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw

Classic Fish Tacos get a healthy and quick makeover for busy weeknights in these Fish Taco Quinoa Bowls with Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw. This recipe for was created in partnership with LoveTheWild.

I love to cook. How is that for stating the obvious?

What isn’t so obvious, is that there are times, even for me, that cooking can begin to feel like a chore, something to cross off the to-do list, just another task. Weeknights are super busy for us. After a day of cooking, photographing, and writing about food, food is often the last thing that I want to think about. I want to cook something easy, eat, have very minimal clean up, and then move on to some “me time” (check out my favorite Ways to Carve out “Me Time”).

There are other times, however, that the Me Time actually is the cooking.

Times when the kids are gone and Kevin is out of town or has a late meeting, cooking for myself can be something I really enjoy during the evenings.

Often, I’ll put something I want to watch on TV in the family room which is adjoined to the kitchen, or I’ll put some fun music on, and I’ll cook something that I know only I will want to eat. It becomes a special treat then, making dinner, because I know I’m making something for me.

There is no timeline attached to when dinner needs to be ready. No running around picking people up or dropping them off. No homework I need to worry about helping with. Just a good meal to cook and enjoy.

One of the things I love to do is to have one of my girlfriends over and the two of us will cook something together. We will joke about our “adult food” that the kids won’t want to eat, catch up on things, tell funny stories about our kids or talk about what we’re doing in our jobs, and enjoy something to drink while we cook a meal together.

I’ve learned in my adult years that I actually really do enjoy seafood, yet fish completely intimidates me. I don’t really understand what each variety tastes like, what flavors go well with that particular variety, or the best way to cook it, but I’d like to cook it at home more rather than only enjoying it when we’re eating out (typically on vacation).

I think having a few really good fish dishes would be fun in terms of Girls Night In “me time” nights. I recently learned about and tried LoveTheWild fish. I am totally sold on this as an option for fish for both of my dinner time scenarios (when cooking feels like “me time” and when it feels like a chore).

LoveTheWild completely takes the guess work and intimidation out of making a really good tasting fish dinner thanks to their super simple approach.

Each piece of fish comes with scratch made frozen sauces (like Mango Sriracha Chutney!) so that I can easily figure out what type of flavor profile will be best suited to the variety of fish.

When you look at the box, first, you’ll see really easy instructions on the back of the box. After opening the box, you’ll notice that there is a heart shaped sheet of cut parchment paper, vacuum sealed frozen fish, and three cute heart shaped frozen sauces inside.

You bake the frozen fish and the sauce together wrapped in the parchment paper, so if your day is busy you don’t have to work about forgetting to thaw the frozen fish ahead of time (totally me!).

For a super simple crazy weeknight meal, you can add some veggies to cook with the fish inside of the parchment pouch. If you’re feeling more adventurous and/or have more time on your hands, you can easily build off of the flavor profile that has already been identified.

For my meal, I decided that I’d play off of the flavors of the Barramundi with Mango Sriracha Chutney. The sauce was described as “Lucious mango, bright citrus, savory garlic and warm chiles.”

I’ve never had Barramundi (often referred to as Asian Seabass). In reading about barramundi, I learned that it was a medium-textured, buttery fish and that LoveTheWild gets the fish from a farm in Vietnam that is the first and only Barramundi farm to earn Monterey Bay Seafood Watch’s “Best Choice” rating.

Since the fish was white and mild in taste, my mind went to fish tacos, so I decided I wanted to pair some fresh Mexican flavors with the spicy mango citrus sauce and create a healthier, and faster take, on fish tacos: Fish Taco Quinoa Bowls with Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw.

In the time that it took for the fish to cook, I quickly got a pot of quinoa on the stove. While the quinoa cooked, I chopped some roasted poblanos with cilantro and juiced a lime to stir in after cooking.

After that, I whipped up some Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw which was pretty simple (even easier if you buy pre-shredded carrots) and heated up some black beans.

The total time to make these Fish Taco Quinoa Bowls with Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw was about 30 minutes, but was less than that in terms of hands on time since a lot of the time was passive, such as waiting for the fish and quinoa to cook. The fish cooked quickly, taking only takes about 20 – 25 minutes to cook.

30 minutes for a super tasty meal that I’ll enjoy cooking as part of my “me time” routine is a win.

I also love that I can create a meal for a busy weeknight when cooking dinner doesn’t really feel like “me time” but I still want to eat well. LoveTheWild says their goal is to “create exciting dinner solutions that are not only delicious, nutritious, and ecologically responsible, but easy to cook flawlessly, every single time.” I’d say they succeeded!

If you’d like to try this recipe for Fish Taco Quinoa Bowls with Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw at home, find LoveTheWild products near you using their handy store locator.

What would you do with a little extra time in your day?

The first 10 commenters will receive a digital coupon for $2 off a LoveTheWild product (*suggested retail value is anywhere between $9-11).

Fish Taco Quinoa Bowls with Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw

Yield:serves 2

Prep Time:10 minutes

Cook Time:25 minutes

Total Time:35 minutes

Classic Fish Tacos get a healthy and quick makeover for busy weeknights in these Fish Taco Quinoa Bowls with Cilantro Lime Kale Slaw. This recipe for was created in partnership with LoveTheWild.

Directions:

When the fish has finished cooking, divide the 2 filets between 4 bowls. Then, add 1/2 cup of the quinoa, 3/4 cup of the slaw, and 1/4 of the black beans (about 3.5 ounces) to each bowl. Top with fresh cilantro, tortilla chips or fried tortilla strips, and avocado slices for garnish.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of LoveTheWild. The opinions and text are all mine.